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Alice Estee
Overview She is in a position of power at the studio and doles out scripts in a domineering fashion to several of the actors. She can often be heard laughing at Frankie and the other actors. She’s an executive and casting agent like her husband, Claude. She’s devious and involved in a number of underhand scams, including a convoluted plot to dispose of Marshall. She stalks around the studio with elegant, predatory movements. Appearance Alice is statuesque in a tight blue dress with lace sleeves, and navy blue heels that signal of her approach across various a corridor. Gallant, stealthy and threatening to her core, she is seen occasionally wearing a mock costume within the Orgy, in which a mask and suit replace her typical navy blue number. Alice's hair is always seen tied back, most usually tightly so, to add to her fierce look. Loop - Basic * Directs Faye to audition (Secretary's Office) * Cleans scissors at desk (Secretary's Office) * Gives scissors to Gatekeeper (Secretary's Office) * Casting dance with Claude (Secretary's Office) * Writes Dolores love letter (Secretary's Office) * Bullies Gatekeeper and orders him not to let Marshall pass (Studio Gates) * Retrieves scissors (Gatekeeper's Office) * Directs Dolores and Marshall to snow room (Finale Stage) * Drops scissors in pond (Finale Stage) * Tells Frankie he was chosen (Finale Stage) * Gives Eugene his Grocer role (Party Tent) * Picks up scissors (Seamstress Dressing Room) * Watches Doctor examine Wendy (Medical Room) * Given Lila script by Stanford (Boardroom) * Dances with Lila on table (Boardroom) * Drops big scissors on table (Seamstress Dressing Room) * Auditions Frankie (Studio 5) (where loop one begins) * Changes into suit and mask (Basement Dressing Room) * Frankie initiation (Masonic Temple) * Changes out of costume (Basement Dressing Room)* * Prepares/tidies desk (Masonic Ante Room) * Desk-rolling dance with Mr. Stanford (Masonic Ante Room) * Drinks and slumps against desk (Masonic Ante Room) * Rolls wheelchair into temple (Corridors - Masonic Temple) * Drags Mr. Stanford into wheelchair with P.A. (Masonic Temple) * Attends orgy (Masonic Temple) * Gives Dolores grandma role (Masonic Ante Room) * Watches Wendy murder Marshall (The Woods)** * Retrieves scissors (The Woods) *1:1 with mask. ** Takes mask to murder. Loop - Extended Alice is in Studio 2, the Woodchip Trailer Park, watching Wendy staggering down a hill with a pair of bloody scissors. Wendy drops the scissors and Alice picks them up, pinching them gingerly with her fingertips like a detective gathering evidence. She walks through the glade, calm and self-possessed. She bumps into Andrea who’s worried about an audition. Alice tells her she’s going to be great and Andrea runs off nervously. Alice heads for Temple Studios on the First Floor. She enters the Secretary’s Office and sees Faye coming through the studio gates. She directs her to an audition with an encouraging wink, ‘You knock ‘em dead girl!’ Alice is full of energy and satisfaction about the murder she’s just witnessed. She wipes the scissors clean under a desk lamp while assessing the scene, ‘That was full of danger and drama and excitement, I really felt something. That’s important, right?’ She delivers a delighted critique, equally applicable to her own performance. Trapped in a ‘predestination paradox’, she’s cleaning Marshall’s blood from the blades while at the same time preparing a plot to eliminate him. She starts writing a note to him, asking him to come and meet her. She stops before signing it and takes out an old studio contract from a file. She copies Dolores’ signature and compares her attempt with the real version. ‘Close enough’, she says. She writes a couple of notes that say ‘ROMOLA CLEAR UP THE MESS!’ and ‘I’M WATCHING YOU’, and she leaves them on the desk. She walks through the door and hands the scissors to The Gatekeeper. ‘Get rid of these’, she says and he looks annoyed. ‘I’m watching you,’ she sneers and he replies, ‘You keep doing that’. She spots a red ribbon in his breast pocket and takes it from him. She returns to the Secretary’s Office. Claude walks in and sits at the other end of the desk. He and Alice begin to ‘dance’ while sitting down on their chairs, rolling towards and away from each other as they look through headshots of Hollywood hopefuls. They spin around and Alice throws the photos in the bin. ‘He signs his own autographs? In the trash!’ she squeals, ‘I’m not even looking at them’. They dismiss them out of hand, but stop at the last one of Marshall. ‘He’s the one’, they agree. Alice goes back to The Gatekeeper’s office to retrieve the scissors from a metal box. She bullies The Gatekeeper again and gives him the forged note from Dolores. He looks uncertain and she growls, ‘What’s the matter, can’t you read?’ She orders him not to let Marshall through the gates and presents him with a headshot of Marshall to hang on the wall. She writes on it, ‘NO EXIT’. She walks downstairs to the Finale stage and meets Marshall and Dolores, the two stars of her show. They’ve just been to a party in the Mess Tent and she directs them to Studio 4, the ‘Frozen Lake’ set. She drops the scissors into a pool of water on the stage. Frankie bounds up full of energy and she tells him that he’s been chosen for the part of ‘Bobby’ in a big musical, ‘Leader of the Pack’. Like a queen bestowing a gift on her drudge, she tyrannises the desperate and sycophantic young actor. She enters the Mess Tent and meets Eugene who’s dancing in a red sequined dress. She reprimands him for not playing his role and tells him to get back to being The Grocer. She orders him to put his apron back on, ‘No, I mean really be The Grocer’. She goes upstairs to The Seamstress’ workshop and picks up a pair of scissors from the table. She stops outside The Doctor’s surgery and watches Wendy being examined. When it’s over, she approaches Wendy and holds up the scissors in front of her face, ‘Snip, snip!’ She passes The Doctor a file about Dolores, and they clink champagne flutes and share a conspiratorial glance. She strides off to the Boardroom where she meets the boss, Mr Stanford. He gives her a script to give to Lila for her first day at work. Alice has the red ribbon that she took from The Gatekeeper tucked into her dress and Mr Stanford slowly pulls it out. He leaves and Alice climbs onto the large table with a glass of champagne in her hand. Lila creeps through the door and Alice is clutching the script to her chest and performing a strange dance. She tells Lila to climb up and leads her in a swaying, dreamy shimmy. She forces her – by sheer will and hypnotic power – to copy her every move. They come together, chest to chest, with the script wedged between them. Alice smiles, ‘You want it, don’t you?’ Hesitantly, Lila takes it and Alice says, ‘You’re my friend now, right? Anything you need!’ She welcomes her to the company like a cheerful Hades at the gates of hell. Alice climbs off the table and saunters out of the room. She strides back to The Doctor’s surgery, scooping up the scissors from the table and dropping them off in The Seamstress’ workshop. ‘Thank you!’ she bellows sarcastically to no’one in particular. Frankie is sitting alone in Studio 5, looking completely lost. He’s just performed to ‘Bull Dog’ but it wasn’t what he expected. Alice approaches from behind and pounces. She tells him how fantastic he was. Claude joins in and the two lunatic executives proceed to ‘audition’ him. Alice lusts after him like an excited sorority girl, ‘That's an arm. That is an arm.’ She pretends to hit him with a baseball bat. ‘Laugh,’ she orders and Frankie chuckles uncertainly. He looks at them and says nervously, ‘You guys are nuts!’ After smothering him relentlessly, they tell him that he’s ready to meet the boss. They storm out of the studio before he has a chance to catch up. Alice rushes downstairs and stops by a door in the corridor. She unlocks it and disappears inside. She puts on a pair of black trousers, a white shirt and a black jacket. She puts on a rubbery bald mask with a sagging jaw and holes for eyes. She pads across the room in her bare feet and grabs a contract from a table. She opens the door and heads for the hall across the corridor. She joins Mr Stanford and two other masked hoodlums. The four of them proceed to ‘initiate’ Frankie and persecute their latest patsy. They throw him around, hit him with bats, drag him on the floor and force an orange slice into his mouth. He ends up face-to-face with Mr Stanford who’s holding a gun. He points it at Frankie’s forehead and squeezes the trigger. A loud bang goes off and ticker tape rains down on the bewildered actor. The three henchmen whip off their masks and reveal themselves as Dolores, Claude and Alice. Triumphantly, Alice presents Frankie with his contract and his deal with the devil is complete. Alice is the first to leave, returning to her room across the corridor. She opens the door and this time allows an audience member to enter with her. 1:1 ‘Sit down,’ she says and he does. The room is small and dark, with a desk and two plush chairs. One wall is draped with red curtains and in the corner stands a tree trunk on its side. She takes a couple of swigs from a bottle on ice. She’s buoyant and chatty, laughing to herself about the ritual as she slips off her shoes and unbuttons her shirt. ‘That boy!’ she exclaims, ‘The things that boy is gonna see, the things that boy is gonna do! Still, as a new star is born, so an old one must die.’ Screaming can be heard from the corridor outside. ‘Another one in, another one out,’ says Alice to herself. She sits in the chair wearing a bra, underwear and sheer stockings. She puts her heels back on. She stands up and puts on her blue dress. She turns her back to the man and snaps at him to zip her up and secure the button. He does so and she turns to face him. She lifts his mask off and inspects him, turning his head to one side and then the other. She stares at him, cold and analytical, as if she’s examining a medical specimen. She raises his arm and runs her fingers up to his hand, splaying his fingers. Maintaining eye contact, she lowers her nose to his arm and breathes in deeply. Satisfied, she pins him against a wall. She brings her face close to his and whispers, ‘And he created the horse with a handful of wind and said to it, you will fly without wings and defeat my enemies without a sword’. Alice continues her monologue, ‘But the day will come when your gallop will falter, and you will fall lame and on that day your strings will be cut and you will be slaughtered.’ This seems to be the fate that awaited the horse in the Basement car park, which may represent the death of Temple Studios. As Mr Stanford says, ‘I made the horse run. I can make it fall’. Alice finishes her talk and there’s sorrow in her voice. She pulls back slightly and for a second she seems vulnerable, but then her steely expression returns. Her face hardens and her mouth twists with disgust. ‘Get out’ she spits and hands him his mask. He hesitates and she orders him to put it on. She opens the door and leaves him alone in the corridor. Alice emerges from the room, rolls her shoulders and says, ‘Come on, let’s party’. She walks to the smaller hall and heads for a desk sitting between two columns. There’s a small sign on the desk that reads, ‘TIDY DESK, TIDY MIND’. Alice prepares the desk in a very precise manner. She takes items from the drawers and places them on the desktop, like a robot assembling a car. She takes out a chalice and inspects it in the light. She places it down delicately and begins to push the desk in large circles around the room. ‘Stratusphunk’ by The Gil Evans Orchestra plays through the speakers. Mr Stanford appears and the two of them dance an absurd boogie while rolling the desk around the room. They trade it off each other and move various items around on top of it, preparing a potion for the staff party. At one point, Mr Stanford pushes it forward and Alice closes drawers on either side as she ducks underneath, like a train moving through a tunnel. Mr Stanford pulls out the package that Romola has delivered to him. He rips it open and inside is some straw and a white knight. He takes the chess piece and grates it into the chalice. They both take a swig from the cup. Mr Stanford staggers off to the Masonic Temple Hall next door, and Alice falls face-first onto the desk. Her upper body goes limp, but her legs begin to push forward and the desk rolls across the floor with her slumped over it. The desk hits a column and the bump causes Alice to jolt from her stupor. She rights herself and exits the room. In the drawers of the desk there are a number of studio documents. The papers on one side relate to William and on the other they relate to Wendy. There’s a picture of 'Young William and Andy' and a picture of a black cat, labelled 'William’s Dream’. There are children’s scribbles of family life. There’s a picture of a child dressed as a clown, sitting on a half moon, entitled 'William as a Child’. There are references to William and Mary’s son, Christian, and Wendy and Marshall’s daughter, Chrissie. There are copies of ‘The Sandman’ and one of Wendy’s drawers contains a beaded necklace with a tag that reads ‘Wendy, The Drowned Man, Studio 5’. Alice struts down the corridor and stops next to an empty wheelchair. She pushes it to the Masonic Temple Hall where Mr Stanford is lying on the ground, whispering to an audience member. The Assistant enters and helps Alice to lift Mr Stanford into the wheelchair. The strained notes of ‘The Pink Room’ echo from the speakers and the guests begin to arrive for the party. With Mr Stanford disabled and reduced to wheeling around, Alice takes over as Master of Ceremonies. She instigates the debauchery and destruction with the help of The Assistant. The other guests dance and jerk as Alice stands in the middle of the hall. She has an evil smile on her face, confident that things are going to plan. Wendy shows up late and catches Marshall and Dolores embracing. She starts to shake uncontrollably and Alice stands stock-still, staring her down. The party dissolves into chaos and everyone crashes out. Alice walks to the neighbouring hall and calls out to Dolores. She retrieves a script from the desk and says, ‘We have your next part’. Delighted to be the bearer of bad news, she hands Dolores the role of ‘Grandmother’. Dolores protests, ‘No, no, but Stanford said’. She doesn't like her role, but Alice doesn't like a crybaby. She pulls out a mannequin dressed in a fur cloak and latex mask. She drapes the fur over Dolores and then adds the mask. She backs away and smiles reassuringly, ‘Deep breath now’. Dolores becomes hunched. Her shoulders cave in and her hands reach out like claws. Alice watches calmly as the diva transforms into a shambling wreck. Dolores begins to scream and turn in circles, pushing back the audience members who are silently watching. Alice finishes off the costume with a headscarf and cane. Dolores stumbles away in agony and Alice makes her way upstairs. She enters the forest to see Wendy and Marshall on top of the woodchip mound. Stealthily, she makes her way towards them, using the trees as cover. She tells an audience member that they’re about to witness the pinnacle of the studio’s achievements. As Wendy carries out the murder, Alice captures it all through a frame that she creates with her hands. Marshall disappears through the floor and there’s silence. Wendy stumbles away, dropping the scissors. Alice climbs up the mound, hugging the wall and hiding in the shadows. She picks up the scissors, examines them closely and holds them under her nose. She inhales deeply and is madly ecstatic. She takes them up to the Secretary’s Office on the First Floor, where she wipes them clean under a desk lamp. Final Show Trivia These words relate to a passage from the Koran describing how Allah created the horse. It claims he said to the magnificent creature, ‘I have made thee as no other. All the treasures of the earth lie between thy eyes. Thou shalt carry my friends upon thy back. Thy saddle shall be the seat of prayers to me. And thou shalt fly without wings, and conquer without any sword.’ According to Bedouin legend, Allah created the horse from the four winds. He endowed the animal with spirit from the North, strength from the South, speed from the East and intelligence from the West. It was believed that Allah gave the Arabian Horse to Ishmael, son of Abraham. The angel Gabriel descended from heaven and awakened Ishmael with a whirling storm cloud. At a command from the angel, the mist and dust solidified into the first Arabian Horse. Quotes * "Tidy desk, tidy mind." * "He's in the trash. I'm not even looking anymore." * "You knock them dead" * "Do you wanna be a grocer? Like, really BE a grocer?" * "Gotta get the costume right....right??!!" * "Are you done?" References Category:Characters